another day.

put your itunes on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that play. then share a memory about each of those songs.

1. NARC - Interpol
This band reminds me of late afternoons, driving down from beaver mountain with an old friend of mine. We had our coffee in our hands to keep us warm, with the beautiful Logan Canyon for company. Snow was everywhere, freezing on trees and clinging to road signs. we blasted this entire album every time for the drive home and it was perfect music after a day on the mountain.


2. Miss Delaney - Jacks Mannequin
Ah, this takes me back to the days of high school, and driving around to find somewhere to eat for lunch. It was usually nate driving his little blue truck, with adam, kole and i sitting in the bed of the truck in the spring, singing miss delaney at the top of our lungs.



3. You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse will forever remind me of the summer after my sophomore year of college at Utah State. I was living in Logan with close friends and spent my summer days hiking, going on walks with my dog kiara, playing frisbee golf and baatchi, settlers of catan and using Skype to call brazil.


4. Bangers and Mash - Radiohead
This song just happens to be one of my favorite songs in my entire iTunes library. It reminds me of longboarding the streets of Salt Lake City in flip flops and shorts, sunglasses and tank tops.


5. Infra-Red - Placebo
About a year ago, an "ex crush" of sorts showed me this song at 4 30 in the morning as we sat on my porch. I remember thinking, "wow, this song is incredible." A year later, despite all the crap that kid put me through (he is so not cool...haha), I still love this song.


6. Drive - Incubus
Incubus is my all time favorite band, and this song reminds me of elementary school, when I heard it and was instantly amazed. It's been years since my first intro to this epic band. They remind me of high school sluffing class, driving around with the volume full blast by myself. Incubus is probably the most influential band in my life, so it's safe to say this song means a lot to me.


7. Big Sur - Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar
This song reminds me of star gazing at Frog Rock, a giant rock formation in North Ogden. This song makes me smile because it reminds me of better times, before life got kind of difficult. I was 20 years young, with no idea what was ahead of me.


8. Quiet Houses - Fleet Foxes
I only heard of Fleet Foxes this summer, and was completely changed by their perfect harmonies and clean sound. The first time I heard this track I was driving home from camping with a bunch of my friends. One of them, Soren, said something to the effect of, "This is a great post-camping song. It's so relaxing and amazing." I couldn't help but agree with him and to this day I smile when I remember that drive and those friends I hung out with my last year up in Logan.


9.  Put You On Game - Lupe Fiasco
I actually had no idea I had this song, so I was way excited when it came on random!! This is my all time favorite Lupe song. He is one of few rappers I enjoy because he's actually decent at what he does. Not to mention this song is just gangster.. It reminds me of an old friend of mine. Him and I would listen to it as we cooked dinners at my house or did homework in my living room. He used to rap every word to it and I would pretend to beat box in the background. It's actually a song that feels very bittersweet in retrospect.


10. Soco Amaretto Lime - Brand New
This is the one song I would use to remember high school by. Brand New was one of my favorite bands. I saw them live when I was 16 and I've always loved their music. This song gives me serious deja vu of sitting in my hot tub with my best guyfriends, talking about how we were going to do what the song said and "stay eighteen forever". Next thing I know I'm 22 and life has had its ups and downs. But this song always brings me back to my roots, reminding me of the person I was before I moved out.

day eight.

talk about one of your favorite hobbies.
i used to do a lot of photography in my spare time. it makes me sad because i hardly ever do it now...life gets so busy. but one of my favorite things to do is to take a break from the stress of every day life, and take pictures of pretty things around me. my favorite kind of camera is a Polaroid. i also really really want a holga. (early christmas present, anyone? please?) here are some i've taken over the years.

aaron in logan.

laketown.

fall in heber city

why i love logan

sunflower.

hike around yellowstone lake.

i love taking pictures becuase they all tell a story, whether to who sees the picture or to me as i take the picture. like the yellowstone lake picture (right above). i took that photo, thought "wow, yellowstone is beautiful." then literally 15 seconds later my friend and i walked around the boardwalk and saw a grizzly bear maybe 15 feet in front of us. she was eating with another bear who was about 40 feet away...it was the most terrifying thing!! we backed away slowly..rounded the corner..and ran for our lives!!

now every time i look at this picture i feel a sudden rush of adrenaline.

that is what i love about pictures.

day seven.

list nicknames that you have, and why.

this is a fun one...mostly because i have SO many nicknames. i'm not sure why either. but i love all the nicknames my friends and family have given me over the years!

1. laur for obvious reasons.... it's the shortened version of my name.. (duh).

2. laurels or laurels barkley. my friend mike patton started calling me laurels barkley (a clever take on the musician gnarls barkley, who i love) and eventually it just got shortened to laurels. and now a lot more people call me that. haha i love it.

3. LG my initials have somehow caught on to be a nickname of sorts. my friend scott fletcher has called me this for years and years, and recently it caught on to my other kaysville friends, who have lovingly dubbed me "the LG".

4. scuzz this might be my favorite nickname i've ever had. when i was in 4th grade my cousin gardner gave me that nickname after a character in a comic book. it stuck like glue. his whole family started calling me scuzz, as well as all of my other elementary school friends. to this day, 15 years later, i still see some of gardner's family or old friends sometimes, where they all say, "hi scuzz! how are you?"

5 larky my friend jordan actually started calling me that, and then my best friends adam and brenton have been calling me it ever since. it started a couple years ago while i lived with them in salt lake. now every time i get a text from anyone in that group of friends, i'm always referred to as "larky". adam also likes to call me "pookey" on occasion, though i have no idea where that came from.

so there you have it. i tend to respond to lauren, laurels, LG, scuzz or larky..but also have responded to past nicknames such as loo, ra ra, or elb (my brother came up with that one. short for L-Babe i suppose).

day six.

complete the sentence "i am..."

strong
carefree
scatterbrained
optimistic
hopeful
disappointed
free
stressed
happy.

uno dos tres quatro cinco.

something that makes you feel better.

that is easy...it's my cat!! this is my cat, nesta, who has many nicknames including "nesta pesta" "nesta prime" (we pretend she's a transformer), "stinky brat" (very appropriate), or "kitten little". she is almost 2 and is the naughtiest cat around. she loves to drink out of the toilet, pick on the dogs, harass older cats (ally's cat sofie was super entertaining to watch, as is my parent's cat cleopatra..), climb trees outside, and sleep on important things/dark clothing.
however, despite her naughtiness she is the best thing in my world. every day i come home to her whiny meow, but i can't help but love it. she loves to hang out with me and cuddle with me. i'm fairly certain she has a sixth sense and can tell when i am sad. those days she tries extra hard to be cute...it almost always works.

she is kind of like a dog stuck in a cat's body...which makes me love her even more. not to mention, last but not least, she is named after one of my idols robert nesta marley, and she more than lives up to her namesake!

i love my cat. she makes me happy.
:]